Seven women who have gone public about sex abuse by Rolf Harris since he was convicted

After a London court declared Rolf Harris guilty of sexually assaulting four young girls over a 20-year period, more victims are stepping forward with fresh allegations of harassment and abuse.

Armed with a renewed confidence and a hope for justice, women from all over the world have been contacting lawyers and media outlets.

ANITA JACOBY, former director of TV at Andrew Denton's Zapruder's Other Films

Anita Jacoby was working as an executive producer on the much-lauded talk show Enough Rope when Harris groped her, she claimed in a first-person piece on Monday. After the filiming of the interview segment in London in 2005 wrapped up, Jacoby revealed Harris gave her a bear hug, during which he “pulled [her] lower body in to his crotch area so that [they] were touching.”

Related Content

She recoiled and pushed him away, emphatically saying: “That wasn’t a hug, that was a grope!”

There were no apologies and no expressions of remorse, she said. Years of “simmering resentment” since the incident gave way to anger when she saw his lack of shame and remorse for his actions in court this year.

Advertisement

MAGGIE BARRY, New Zealand MP

Maggie Barry said she was groped by Harris when she was a journalist in the 1980s. She was preparing for a radio interview when he put his hand up her thigh.

She believes that Harris “will get the full force of the law and probably die in jail”.

VANESSA FELTZ, BBC presenter

British television presenter Vanessa Feltz claims she was molested by Harris while interviewing him for Channel 4's Big Breakfast Show in 1996. The interview was being screened live and watched by thousands of children. They were “on the bed” when he put his hand inside her underwear, leaving her “absolutely staggered”. She threw to a commercial break in an effort to stop him from gaining “access to the most intimate part of my body”.

The 52-year-old was one of seven women barred by the judge from providing bad character witnesses in the Harris trial. She waived her right to anonymity and spoke to Britain's Sunday Express in the hope of encouraging other victims to come forward with their stories.

LEE HOWDEN, former make-up artist for TVNZ

Lee Howden was doing Harris’ make-up before an interview in a Christchurch studio in the mid-1980s when his hand slid up her right leg and went inside her underpants.

“I just about died. I dropped my tools and I just went straight out into the control room," she told Radio NZ. She was in her mid-20s at the time.

“It was so quick [and] there would have been at least another three people in that studio.”

She is now planning to file a complaint to the police.

Woman at a garden party

A 41-year-old woman told Britain's Sunday Mirror anonymously that Harris ran his hand down her back and caressed her bottom just after they posed together for a photo being taken by her husband.

They were at a garden party at Buckingham Palace, thrown for 2000 wounded, injured and sick army personnel in 2012.

She said the shamed entertainer asked her a lewd question, out of the earshot of her husband: “Is he looking after you?”

Looking back on that day, she said: “What was I expected to say to that? It was spine-chillingly creepy and clearly had a sexual connotation … I thought I was in the safest place possible with one of the most loved children’s entertainers, but he touched me intimately.”

Girl at a Christmas party

A New Zealander, who chose to remain anonymous, claims she was nine when Harris sexually touched her. At an Anglican Trust Christmas Party in the late 1970s, she was sitting on the artist’s knee to give him a present when his hand wandered up her skirt.

"He would try and stick his hands up under your skirt and into your panties and rub your chest on the front," she told TV3's Campbell Live.

"I distinctly recall that what he was trying to do hurt."

Tracey Spicer lifts the lid

In a column penned for Fairfax Media, broadcaster Tracey Spicer revealed that Rolf Harris was known as "The Octopus" in the industry for his wandering hands.

But he wasn't the only one.

Spicer said in her 25 years in the television industry, she was warned by colleagues about dozens of gropers, molesters and harassers.